Insole and the method of making the same



G. H. BLACK. INSOLE AND THE METHOD OF MAKING THE SAME. APPLICATION FILED NOV-10, 1917. RENEWED MAR. 2, 11m.

1,392,906, Patented Oct. 11, 1921.

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INSGLE AND TI-IE METHOD OF MAKINGTHE SAME.

lessees,

Application filed November 10, 1917; Serial 110.201,?573/ Renewed. March 2, 1921. Serial No. 449,289

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, GEORGE ll'l. BLACK, a citizen of the United States, residing at Rochester, in the county of ltlonroe and State of New York; have invented certain Improvementsin Insoles and the Method of Making the Same, of which the" following.

description, in connection with the accompanying drawings, is a specification, like reference characters on the drawings-indicating like parts in the several figures.

This invention relates to the manufacture of shoes and has for its primary objects to improve shoes having pointed or peaked toes and to facilitate the manufacture thereof. As herein illustrated, the invention is particularly adapted for use in the manufacture of welt shoes although, in certain aspects In making pointed toe shoes such as are worn largely by women, the major part of the crippling or damaging ofthc shoes during the inseaming operation results from the pullingaway of the sewing 'ib at the toe from the body of the insole or sole, and particularly at the left side of the end of the toe. This is due to the extreme difficulty experienced in channeling a pointed toe without allowing the knives. to cut into the between-substance as thetoe is turned in the channeling machine. Such cutting-in weakens .the connection-of the sewing rib to the body of the insole at a portion of the 1 insole where the inseam stitches are the 35 closest togetherand where-more than the ordinary strains are applied to the stltches while sewing around a narrow. toe.

I-have by this invention succeeded in so dealing wlth-t-hese and other difficulties as to eliminate substantially all cobbling of the toes after inseaming. and to, eliminate the evil of pointed toe shoes being returned for ripping at the toe. g 1 Q An important feature of this invention consists in a peaked toe sole of flexible stock having a marginal lip cut from the body of the sole and'upturned to form a sewingrib extending around the shank and forepart and formed and arranged for securing upper materials thereto,.and a fabric element secured to the sole,'said element terminating forwardly'of the ball line of the. sole and lying against the sewing rib around the toe from one side to the other to reinforce the Specification of Letters Patent.

impossible to turn Patented Got; ii,

sewing rib at the toe end of the sole. The

invent-ion, as herein illustrated by way of e-Xemplification, comprises a reinforced welt shoe insolehaving a sewing rib and comprising. a leather body channeled to produce a lip which is turned up to comprise a part of the sewing rib, and a fabric reinforcement covering the face of the insole and having its marginal portions included in the sewing rib, and a lip strengthening element or reinforce consisting of a triangular piece of material possessing tensile strength and having two upturned edges of substantially the same height as the lip, said strengthening piece terminating approximately at the tip line of the insole being adhesively connected with the body at the point of the toe inside the channel and having said upturned margins connected directlyto-the inner face of the channel-lip.

The invention will more fully appear from the following description of the illustrative embodiment thereof shown in the acconr panying drawings and-will then be particularly pointed out in the claims.

Figure .1 of the drawings shows a welt shoe insole body member channeled and having inner and outer channel lips turned up and stitched together for the production of an Economy type of insole;

Fig 2 shows the lip strengthening element;

Fig. 3 shows the lip strengthening element in place on'the insole shown in Fig. 1; and V 1 shows a usual fabric reinforcement applied to the toestrengthened insole.

The welt shoe insole chosen for illustration, and in which this invention has been used with commercial success, consists of a body portion 2 having inner and outer channels 3 and at forming lips of the sewing rib. Thenarrow portion .of stock between the channelcuts, commonly designated the between substance, forms the connection of said lips to the body of the insole. In channeling around a pointed toe'it is practical y the insole relatively to causing one or blades to dig particuthe cutting blades without the other of the cutting deeper. into the between substance, larly at the left handside of the toe, than occurs at other parts of the insole. It is, therefore, a usual condition that the conr is adapted to fit into the toe of the insole at the inner side of the channel lips.

The strengthening element is preferably coated with strong adhesive materialand is formed by pressuresnugly into the point of the toe and caused to adhere firmly to the body of the insole and to the inner face of the channel lips. The turning up of the inside channel lip produces a. gutter at the base of the inner face of the channel lips and the strengthening element is firmly pressed into said gutter so as to bring the plane of its top face substantially down to the level of the top face of the feather 6 0f the insolej outside the lips. The upstanding edges of the strengthening element are fitted or-cut flush with the top edge of the channel lips. The strengthening element is thus arranged to take the strain of the inseam stitches which connect the upper and Well; to the sewing rib of the insole. The strengthening element covers only the toe portion of the insole, terminating in front of the ball portion of the insole, the flexibility of which is therefore in no degree decreased by the pres 'ent improvement to the toe portion of the insole. This is of importance because the preservation of the flexibility of the insole, except at the toe, is highly desirable, not only to render the finished shoe easy to walk in, but to insure that the insole will conform to the last bottom when assembled thereon during the process of manufacture. When using good quality insole stock a complete reinforce is not desirable because it stifiens the entire sole unnecessarily, causing an objectionable buckling when tacked on the last, and requires the shoe to 1 be broken in by the wearer. Furthermore the insole is in a mull temper when i'nseamed and a complete reinforce will oppose an effective shaping of the insole to the last by the lasting feature of the'sewing operation. A. strengthening and stiffening element applied only to thearea where it is essential to improving the quality of the insole is, therefore, an important feature of the invention. In a convenient application of the strengthening element 10 to an insole the sewing rib 3, 4 and the strengthening element are gripped and clamped during themanufacture of the insole between a forked outer shaping member, which is formed to lie on the feather 6 of the insole and against the outer wall of the sewing rib, and an inner shaping member, which is formed on its bottom face to press the strengthening element down into the gutter along the. base of the channel lip and outwardly against the inner face of the lip. These shaping members may advantageously beheated to cause them to mold the sewing rib accurately into the desired position and into symmetrical relation to the edge of the insole around the end of the toe. A machine such as above outlined is shown and described in my co-pending application Ser. No. 2oS,G39, filed -Dec. 28, 1918. The strengthening element shaped and applied as described, being molded down into the gutter and adhesively attached and hot iron molded to the lip, stiifens the toe of the in" sole, as is desirable, and renders unnecessary a very common practice heretofore followed of'dipping the end portion ofa pointed toe welt insole in shellac or other stiffening solution. In making covered insoles such as exemplified by theEconomy type of insole the usual reinforcing fabric 16 is applied over the entire face of the insolewith its marginshaped up by the well known Economyinsole making machines to constitute a part of the sewing rib. The Economy type of insole embodying the present invention in the form herein illustrated therefore has the strengthening element 10 located between the body portion 2 of the insole and the reinforcing fabric 16. g

It will be noted that, whether theleather portion of the sole is reinforced by the element 1.0 alone or by it. together with the reinforcement '16, the-rib is strengthened and the between substance is thickened at the toe, as compared with the portions thereof in the vicinity of the ball line, for example, thus compensating. in each case, for the weakened condition of the rib at the toe without impairing the flexibility'of the sole elsewhere.

Having explained the nature of this invention, I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States:

1. A welt shoe insolehaving a leather body channeled to produceinner and. outer l1ps which are turned upwardly against each other to'form a sewing rib and toreceive the stitches which connect the insole, upper and welt, a fabricreinforcement covering the channeled face of the insole from the heel breast line forwardly and having marginal portions thereof included in the sewing rib, and a lip strengthening element arranged in the toe of the insole between said leather body and said fabric reinforcement and comprising a triangular piece of tough material adhesively connected wit-h the leather body in the point of the toe inside said rib and positioned wholly forward of the ball line and having two upturned portions connected to'the inner face of said rib and lying between said rib and said fabric reinforcement. v

2. A welt shoe insole comprising a body provided with a channel lip turned up to receive the stitches which connect the insole, upper and welt anda gutter or channel at -the base of the lip, a lip strengthening element being molded together to produce a sewing rib of predetermined shape.

3. A peaked toe sole of flexible stock having a marginal lip cut from the body of the sole and upturned to form a sewing rib to which the upper materials are to be secured, and a reinforce for the peaked toe portion of the sewing rib adhesiv'ely connected to the insole and comprising a layer of tough material extending forwardly from approximately the tip line of the sole to the apex of the angle inside the sewing rib and against the inner face of the rib while leaving-the main portion of the sole relatively flexible.

f. A peaked toe sole of flexible stock, having a marginal lip cut from the stock and upturned to form a sewing-rib to which the upper materials are to be secured and a toe reinforcing and stiffening element consisting of a flanged triangular sheet of material possessing tensile strength, the base of which approximates the tip line of the sole and the sides of which lie in the apex of the angle at the inside of the sewing-rib and against the inner face of the sewing-rib, the stiffening effect of the flanged sheet being increased by an adhesive between the sheet and the sole, whereby the flexibility of the sole is not decreased except at the toe.

5. A peaked toe sole of flexible stock having a marginal lip cut from the body of the sole and upturned to form a sewing rib extending around the shank and forepart and formed and arranged for securing upper materials thereto, and a fabric element secured to the sole and having its rear edge terminating forwardly of the ball line of the sole,

said element lying against the sewing rib around the toe from one side to the other to reinforce the sewing rib at the toe end of the sole.

6. A peaked toe sole of flexible stock having a marginal lip out from the body of the sole and upturned to form a sewing rib extending around the shank and forepart and formed and arranged for securing upper materials thereto, and a fabric element extending around the toe from one side to the other and having its rear edge terminating in front of the ball line, said element being formed and arranged to reinforce the sewing rib at the toe, relatively to portions thereof in the vicinity of the ball line, sufflciently to compensate for the weakened condition of the rib at the toe without impairing tho flexibility of the sole in the vicinity of the ball line.

7. A peaked toe sole of flexible stock having a marginal lip cut from the body of the sole and upturned to form a sewing rib ex tending around the shank and forepart and formed and arranged for securing upper materials thereto, and a fabric element secured to the sole, lying against the sewing rib and formed and arranged to provide agreater thickness of between substance at the toe than in the vicinity of the ball line.

8. That method of reinforcing and stiffening peaked toe soles having a weakened sewing-rib forward of the tip line which comprises adhesively connecting to said weakened sewing-rib a reinforcing layer laid in the angle inside the sewing-rib at the toe end only of the insole, and molding said layer down into the apex of said angle and against the inner face of the sewing-rib to form an angular toe reinforcing and stiffening element.

9. That method of reinforcing a weakened sewing-rib forward of the tip line on peaked toe soles while retaining the flexibilityof the sole to the rear of the tip line, which comprises adhesively connecting to said sewing rib a triangular sheet of material having its sides flanged and laid in the triangular space within the sewing-rib forward of the tip line with said flanges against the inner face of the sewing-rib; and hot iron molding said sheet into contact with the sole.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification.

GEORGE BLACK. 

